Legend has it that one day in the 1930s, a New York City bartender named Fernand Petiot took a simple cocktail concept, one part vodka and one part tomato juice considered best-consumed in the morning to overcome a hangover, and decided to spice it up, adding black pepper, cayenne, lemon juice and Worcestershire and Tabasco sauces to the mix. Fernand Petiot behind the bar. It would come to be known as the bloody mary â a name with many possible origins: Some theorize it was named for the bloody reign of 16th-century Catholic queen Mary Tudor of England; others believe it comes from the curly-haired Hollywood silent-film star, Mary Pickford. Some think it was named for a woman named Mary at a certain bar in Chicago whoâd made an impression on a patron of Petiotâs, and lastly, others suggest it originated from the slurred pronunciation of âVladimir,â as in Vladimir Smirnov, son of the founder of Smirnoff vodka.